


Bughead One Shots

by thebarrios_best



Series: Bughead [1]
Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Adorable, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Minor Archie Andrews/Veronica Lodge, Minor Cheryl Blossom/Toni Topaz, Minor FP Jones II/ALice Cooper, One Shot, One Shot Collection, Please Don't Hate Me, Short One Shot, THE CUTEST, They're too pure, bughead - Freeform, maybe minor smut? idk, my actual children, obviously, okay i'll stop, our babies are soft, please help, they use nicknames, too good for words
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-02
Updated: 2018-08-02
Packaged: 2019-06-20 11:38:15
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,882
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15533400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thebarrios_best/pseuds/thebarrios_best
Summary: Basically a series of one shots where I inwardly scream about one of the best ships in the world and funnel that onto paper.





	1. Soft Kisses and Smoke Alarms

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Jughead Jones is an adorable sleepyhead and Betty Cooper tries not to burn the house down.

The door opened with a click and she turned around from the counter where she stood. She grinned, her green eyes lighting up, as he walked in to the kitchen from their bedroom. He was wearing a t-shirt and pajama pants; he'd just woken up. She was wearing one of his S t-shirts which reached down to her knees. It was warm and soft and she snuggled her arms inside as he smiled lazily at her. His hair was long as it had always been, and there was a piece out of place (as usual). She'd always wondered why it was like that. Maybe he did it just to annoy her. Maybe he did it without noticing. Or maybe -- she allowed herself to fantasize in these early morning moments, when the buzz of the coffee machine barely challenged the buzz of electricity at their touch -- that he did it so that she would reach over and put it back into place, as she did now. Their faces were close together, close enough that she could feel his warm breath on her cheeks.  
"Sleep well?" She asked, and he grinned sleepily.  
"Mmm-hmmm." His eyes drifted down from her own to her lips, then back up again as she giggled. She closed her eyes gently as his arms settled around her waist and he rocked her slightly to the rhythmic beeping of the oven. Suddenly she pulled closer and kissed him, his warm lips melting into hers. Meant to be, she though. Meant to hold on warm mornings, meant to kiss before breakfast. Meant to love forever.  
She opened her eyes slowly.  
"I should probably get that," she whispered, referring to the croissants she'd thrown in the oven to heat up again from the bakery next door. He shook his head.  
"Mmmmm. Or you could just hold on." He replied, trying to kiss her as she spoke. He laughed as she tried to wiggle from his grasp, but he held her fast and succeeded in getting his lips back on her own. Unable to resist, she sunk into the kiss, pushing harder against him. Rough and passionate, but also sweet and slow. Perfect. But the oven was really beeping. She pulled away again and this time managed to extract herself from his grasp. She didn't get two feet, though, before he pounced on her again and, wrapping his arms around her from behind, buried his face in her hair.  
"Jughead, breakfast." She chided.  
"This is better than breakfast," he mumbled, lost in the scent of her rough-and-tumble blonde tangles. Well, the tangle part was his fault. He could never stop touching her hair.  
"You're going to make me burn something," she said sternly.  
"The only thing burning is my desire for you." He replied in all seriousness, his perfect nose still snuggled into her hair, moving them gently from side to side. She snorted.  
"You're so weird." She could feel him nod.  
"So are you, but that's why you love me,"  
She grinned and turned around, surprising him with her lips suddenly on his. She ignored the smell of smoke faintly whispering into the back of her conscience.  
"Yep," she breathed into his mouth. "I love you."  
"And I love you more," he nuzzled their noses.  
"Nope, not possible."  
"Technically it isn't impossible."  
"Yes it is!"  
"No, Betty, it's not because it can't be impossible if I'm doing it."  
"But I told you you're not doing it, because I am."  
"Nope, I --" but he was interrupted by another, much louder, beeping sound and a woman's voice.  
"Warning. Smoke. Fire. Evacuate. Warning. Smoke."  
Betty turned to him, an annoyed look on her face.  
"I TOLD you!" She said. Jug laughed and she punched him in the arm.  
"Hey, it's not funny!" She bent down and removed their burned pastries from the oven, but the smoke alarm was still going off. She grabbed a towel from the drawer, fanning the alarm above the stove.  
"I -- told -- you!" She said, emphasizing each word by hitting him across the face with the towel.  
"No, you said you were going to light something on fire." She rolled her eyes.  
"What's that I hear? Oh, right, the FIRE alarm!"  
"No, actually, that's the smoke alarm, and I don't see anything on fire." He gestured around the room and she groaned.  
"Why do you always have to be right?"  
"Because it's more fun to be right." She rolled her eyes and threw the towel around his neck, grabbing the other side with her other hand, then yanked him closer.  
"Well, I know one thing you're definitely right about," she said, her face again just inches from his.  
"And that is..."  
"That the smoke alarm is ringing, meaning the last one to make it outside dies," she finished and pulled away, laughing at the surprised expression on his face as she started to run.  
"Elizabeth Cooper, you tease!" He ran after her and they both reached the door at the same moment, collapsing in fits of laughter.  
"Nice one," he said.  
"Yeah." Out of breath and staring at his face, those green eyes and that one piece of hair sticking up again, seemed to light her stomach on fire and she placed her hands on either side of his waist.  
"Well, even if we did burn those croissants," she breathed, "I sure had fun doing it." Then she kissed him again, closing her eyes as he brought one hand up to her hair, not caring that they were standing on their front porch in the middle of December and they were both wearing pajamas, because they were young and in love and now seemed just as good a time as any to prove it. She smiled against his lips and felt him do the same.  
"I lo--"  
"WARNING. EVACUATE. SMOKE. EVACUATE."  
"Oh, SHUT UP already, we heard you!" They said at the same time, then laughed in surprise and smiled at each other one more time.  
"You know what, Betts?"  
"Yes, Juggie?"  
"I think..." he leaned closer again.  
"Yeah?" She whispered against his cheek.  
"I think I like you quite a bit."  
"Well," she murmured, moving in the final inch,  
"It's a good thing the feeling's mutual." And then they met again, forgetting about the blaring alarm or the burnt pastries, until they would go inside and get them, her brushing a flake of croissant off his chin; the things they had to do or the places they had to be, not minding a job interview for a job he did not want scheduled for later that day; just lost in the moment -- lost, it seemed, and as it seemed it was, in each other.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that one was short, but basically this is the first in a series of one shots! Feel free to leave kudos or even a comment thanks loveys! ❤️


	2. I Just Can't Breathe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Her mind was racing and Betty felt like she was drowning, like he'd pushed her into the water and she'd been too distracted to notice and she hadn't called back to him for help, and now she was drowning, drowning and she just couldn't breathe.
> 
> In other words:
> 
> Bughead angstyyyyy one shot based on the song No Air.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So for some reason, I was listening to this song today (No Air by Jordin Sparks and Chris Brown), and I decided to make one of those song-based one-shot things sO here you go! Beware of angst! 
> 
> (Also p.s. here are two videos the first is the Glee version cause I frikin love Glee and also those damn fetus Finchel feels https://youtu.be/Z_ZcnHZC9XI but here's the original cause it has a music video + it starts with the first line so yeah idk here they're below and they won't let me open it in a new tab so just copy the link I guess or something? Sorry haha!)
> 
> (P.P.S. this one is a lot longer yay! Okay bye enjoy)

                   [Glee!](https://youtu.be/Z_ZcnHZC9XI) [Original](https://youtu.be/WBKnpyoFEBo)

 

_Tell me how I'm supposed to breathe with no air?_

It was almost like she was suffocating. 

Betty Cooper sat at the windowsill of her childhood home, staring down at the cold, wet concrete below. She hadn't moved from the window seat for a whole day, except to use the bathroom twice. She hadn't even eaten. She felt numb and unaware of anything, three words pounding over and over in her head:

"Just get out."

Just get out.

Just. Get. Out.

She saw a faint mark where his motorcycle tire had skid in the rain, helmet pulled down to cover his face. She'd looked the other way as he drove away from her, hoping it would make it hurt less.

It didn't.

 _If I should die before I wake_  
_It's 'cause you took my breath away_  
_Losing you is like living in a world with no air, oh_

She buried her face in her hands, cold, heavy sobs racking her body. It was just too much. She could still see the despairing look that had contorted his features as she'd screamed at him, face crumbling like _she_ was the one who'd said they should break up. Yeah the fuck right. She would never say that.

She felt like she could die right then and there and it wouldn't matter because the only thing that mattered was Jughead and his hands and his hair and his voice, and he wasn't here and her lungs felt like they were being crushed by a ton of bricks.

It was almost like she was suffocating, the need to breathe him in so overwhelming she could collapse.

 _I'm here alone, didn't wanna leave_  
_My heart won't move, it's incomplete_  
_Wish there was a way I could make you understand..._

Jughead lay on his bed in the deserted trailer, shivering from the rain. He stared at the ceiling, wishing he didn't have to see the memory of her face burned into it. Driving home he'd considered running off the ramp or crashing into a tree, but he'd gotten back and here he was and everything was Betty. They'd been staying at his dad's old trailer here in Riverdale while she was visiting her parents, and somehow -- somehow seeing her with the people here had made him decide he needed to fix it, to get himself out of the picture before they were past the point of no return and she was stuck. He wished he could have explained better, but it was too late because already she was screaming at him and he'd stomped downstairs and driven away, tears staining his shirt, all thoughts of his carefully-planned speech out the window.

The bed was cold and empty, and, God, he missed her so much already.

_But how_

She could still feel the shot of pain to her chest like she was dying, the absolute terror that had struck her like a blow to the head and her mind was racing because _what the hell did he mean he'd been thinking about it for a while?_

_Do you expect me_

He wished so desperately he hadn't had to say what he'd said, but he saw her when she was with her other friends, looking so normal, so happy, and it didn't matter that she said he made her the happiest because _what if she was just saying that and he was holding her back._

She'd even said it herself.

"It's so nice to visit. It reminds me of old times, back when everything was..." she'd looked so nostalgic, so much like she was missing out on something she'd always wanted that it made his heart hurt. "Back when everything was simple."

That was when he'd decided. 

_To live alone with just me?_

The trailer was empty and sad without her bubbly presence, without the joy she would have filled it up with had he picked her up last night like he was supposed to, brought her home from visiting her parents. He couldn't imagine staying there, alone, going back home to their house and packing his stuff and moving out, disappearing before she got home, crumpling the dreams of their life together and tossing them in the trashcan. 

He couldn't imagine life without Betty. It was never just Jughead, just Betty, it was always the two of them, together.

He covered his face with his hands.

 _'Cause my world revolves around you_  
_It's so hard for me to breathe_

"Hey. It's Jughead. Call me back when you can." The voicemail he'd left just before she'd called back and asked him to come to pick her up and please take her home, because Polly and the twins were really getting on her nerves and she was tired and she missed him, echoed out into the air. She couldn't stop playing it. Had he been going to break up with her over the phone? Would it have been easier if he had?

"Hey. It's Jug--" But she was standing up and throwing her phone across the room with an angry scream, watching it hit the expensive vase her mother had bought her for her 20th birthday and make pieces of shattered glass fly across the room.

She felt the sting of a glass shard in her arm. Good, Betty thought. Maybe it would distract her from the pain raging in her heart.

She stared at the mess, chest heaving, a ringing in her ears.

She didn't have a life without Jughead. He was her whole world. He was everything. Everything was gone.

_Tell me how I'm supposed to breathe with no air_

He stood up, forced himself off the bed and into the kitchen, cursing out loud as he hit his shin on the door. He deserved it. He wished she didn't have to think it was so awful, wished it didn't have to hurt her so much, not like it hurt him, wished she could be happy about it, because that was why he'd done it. To make her happy. He deserved the pain.

He just didn't deserve Betty.

_Can't live, can't breathe with no air_

She could barely think straight, running his words over and over in her mind, trying to understand what the _hell_ he'd meant, why he'd been saying all that absolute nonsense.

He kept saying it was _better this way_ and she would _thank him later_ and _staying in Riverdale had made him realize he was ruining her life,_ and she wanted to slap him across the face and wake him up from whatever horrible dream he was in because _he knew that wasn't true._ He knew because she told him every single day that he made her life the best it could be.

She had a flashback of a time in high school, when he'd tried to break up with her because he was laughing with Archie and he said she _just looked so happy and normal and --_

"And it's so clear that you're better off without me," she whispered, echoing the words Jughead had spoken just a few hours ago. The same words as all those years ago.

Oh.

_That's how I feel whenever you ain't there_

But that wasn't possible, right? She hadn't even listened to what he was saying, really, she'd just heard the words _"I've been thinking"_ and then _"I've seen you this whole week "_ and _"I don't think -- are you sure you want to be with me?"_ and her mind had clouded over and her ears were full of her heartbeat, which she was surprised was still happening because her heart felt like it had been crushed like a tin can on the sidewalk, and his mouth was moving but she couldn't speak or hear anything he was saying because _no, no, no, no, NO._

And then suddenly she was screaming.

"We're _engaged,_ Jughead! We can't just fucking call it off!" She was incredulous because what on earth did he mean, _of course she was sure,_ she'd told him a million times. Her voice was shaking but she tried to hold it steady, threw her hands up and in his face, trying to grasp something and pull back time to just a few minutes ago when he'd come in the room and she'd smiled her biggest smile but she should have said _I love you, I love you, I need you, I need you._

He protested and kept talking, he was saying something but she still couldn't process his words, could only understand the pain they were causing, things like "I'm so sorry," and "I think you feel it too," and again and again and again, "you're better off, you'll be better off, better off without me."

Instead, when he'd opened his mouth to say sorry again, she'd screamed,

"Just get out." He faltered and reached a hand to smooth down her hair -- "GET OUT!"

He stepped back and nodded, but she wanted to cry, wanted to say _no, no, please, come back to me, baby, don't leave, don't leave, don't leave._

He left.

_It's no air, no air_

Jughead opened the fridge and searched for something, anything, to distract from his feelings, from the memory of Betty's face shattering into a million pieces before him. He pulled out the butter and jam and slammed the door, pulling the bread off the counter and putting a slice in the toaster. He collapsed onto a chair with a sigh, doing everything in his power to not think about Betty.

Only problem was, that was impossible.

_Got me out here in the water so deep_

She had felt something -- felt that he'd been withdrawn all week, the whole time they'd been back home in Riverdale. They'd stopped by the Andrews', sure, but Betty knew it wasn't Archie, Archie and Ronnie were _married,_ and they'd been home visiting, too, but they lived in a different state, it wasn't that.

Maybe it was just... seeing her here. Back home. Normal.

Jughead was obsessed with normal. With perfect. He wanted everything to be perfect for her; he tried so hard to do everything he could to make it easy. What he didn't understand was that Betty didn't _want_ normal, or perfect, or here. She just wanted Jug. Messy, introverted, beanie-wearing, wavy-haired weirdo Jughead Jones.

He never could really understand that. Maybe being home had brought back all his old insecurities, even though that was stupid because they'd been so happy here before they'd moved to San Francisco, but _maybe,_ just maybe, and somewhere deep in her heart she knew she had avoided it because she wanted this to be a happy trip. Stupid, stupid Betty Cooper.

Her mind was racing and Betty felt like she was drowning, like he'd pushed her into the water and she'd been too distracted to notice and she hadn't called back to him for help, and now she was drowning, drowning and she just _couldn't breathe._

_Tell me how you gon' be without me?_

The toaster made a _shing!_ Sound and the toast popped up, jolting Jug out of his thoughts. He got up and took it out and carefully, painfully slowly spread butter on it. He stuck the knife into the jam and then suddenly pulled it out and slammed it into the cutting board, stabbing through the toast and he didn't stop, just kept hitting it with the butter knife because goddamn, he was so angry.

So angry at the world, at himself for doing this. He knew it was the right choice but somehow, something on her face when he'd said it, underneath all that anger, it was like something just _broke._ Like this part of her had been snapped in half and that part of her was him. And then by the time he'd reconsidered, by the time he'd thought maybe, _maybe_ she really did love him, it was too late.

He could see himself as he'd left, turning around slowly from her angry red face and her screaming at him to _JUST GET OUT,_ her pointer finger in his face. He was wearing his old serpent jacket, and he'd protectively pulled the sides around him as he walked down the stairs of the old Cooper house, where his dad and Alice and Polly and the twins lived now, for what he thought might be the last time.

As he reached the door he could feel someone's eyes on him, and he didn't know or care whose they were as he clumsily reached the back of his hand up to wipe away a tear before disappearing into the rain.

Now he stood at the counter, hands on either side of the cutting board, taking heaving breaths and willing himself not to sob. He turned and squeezed his eyes shut tightly, leaning his back against the tile. He hated this feeling, this not knowing what to do, because he had no idea _what_ he was going to do without Betty. She was the love of his life. It was just -- he could never be sure whether or not he was hers.

He was going to fall apart without her.

_If you ain't here, I just can't breathe_

Betty's mind raced and she felt short of breath, lacking the ability to think clearly because everything was wrong, everything was horrible and _she had to get to him right now and fix everything._

 _There's no air, no air_  
  
Jughead gave up and slid down the counter slowly, hitting the ground with a thump and burying his head in his hands as he burst into tears. They were strong, aching sobs, ones that threw his throat against his chest in a desperate attempt to escape, sobs that were filled with pain. 

_No air air, No air air_

She threw open the door and she was down the stairs in an instant, almost falling down but not quite, and she made it to the front door and didn't even bother to grab a jacket, but she heard her mom or her sister or _somebody_ calling out her name but she didn't care at all, just ran right out into the rain.

 _I walked, I ran, I jumped, I flew right off_  
_The ground to float to you_  
_There's no gravity to hold me down, for real_  
  
Betty was already soaked but she kept running, trying not to slip and kill herself on the wet pavement. She veered sharply left, then right, kept going until she was over the border and in the Southside, she couldn't stop, didn't know what was happening just kept _running, running, running._ She flew a few blocks and then she was running up and over and into the trailer park, and skidding to a stop at the entrance. 

Her mind raced at the thought of finding him as she sprinted around trailers and located theirs, wondering what he was doing, hoping he didn't have anyone there but no, of course he didn't, she didn't care what he was doing, she just needed to see him _now._

 _But somehow I'm still alive inside_  
_You took my breath but I survived_  
_I don't know how but I don't even care_

Jughead's back was digging into the counter at a painful angle, but he hardly noticed. It felt so good to cry, to breathe. Somehow, _somehow,_ he was still breathing, which was impossible, it didn't make sense, he couldn't understand how he could still function, how he was still alive, still here even though she was gone.

_So how_

Betty reached the door, wet hair falling down her back, reaching her hand up to cover her eyes and watching water running down her arm. She paused for only a second, resting her forehead against the trailer door, breathing heavy.

_do you expect me_

He could hear something outside the door, and his mind immediately ran through the impossible idea that maybe _it was her,_ maybe she'd come back -- but no. That didn't make sense. He was imagining things. 

He couldn't stop crying. 

He was a mess, he had always been a mess, but somehow Betty had still made him feel alright, like it was okay that he was the way he was, that everything was going to be okay because _she was there._

And now nothing would ever be the same.

_To live alone with just me?_

She reached her hands up and pounded on the door with her fists, feeling the rain beating on her head and going into her mouth as she panted, but she just kept banging on the door.

"Jughead? JUGHEAD!" 

 _'Cause my world revolves around you_  
_It's so hard for me to breathe_

Jug jolted up with a start, because someone really _was_ there, and they were banging on the door and screaming his name and it sounded like -- it really did sound like -- 

But no, it couldn't be, it _wasn't._

_Tell me how I'm supposed to breathe with no air?_

She could feel herself breaking down again, because of course he wouldn't let her in, he probably hated her now for not even giving him a chance to finish, for saying all those things about _missing old times_ or whatever the hell she'd even said --

_Can't live, can't breathe with no air_

He got up slowly and walked to the door, reached out for the knob with a shaking hand, chest still heaving up and down, up and down, up and down.

_That's how I feel whenever you ain't there_

"Jughead, baby, please let me in -- Juggie? Are you there?" She was desperate, icy rain beating on her skin like a million tiny needles. "JUG!"

 _There's no air, no air_ _  
_

He could hear her but he didn't believe it. She wouldn't come after everything he'd said -- she probably hated him, for everything he'd said --

But if it _was her --_

He took a deep breath.

_Got me out here in the water so deep  
_

She stopped her pounding on the door and turned around, leaning her head on it to catch her breath, eyes squeezed shut.

She froze.

The doorknob was turning.

_Tell me how you gon' be without me?_

He moved his hand slowly, turning it, and then he couldn't stall anymore because it was rotated all the way and the door was pushing ajar and he braced himself and threw it open.

He gasped.

She was just so beautiful.

_If you ain't here, I just can't breathe_

Betty had turned back around and the door was opening and suddenly the thin metal barrier between them was gone and he was there, he was there, in real life and not just a horrible memory and there were tear tracks on his face and --

He really was beautiful.

_No breathing, no breathing, baby_

"Betty," he whispered breathlessly.

He was having trouble making his lungs work.

_There's no air, no air_

"Jug."

Her heart had stopped beating for what felt like a century.

__Can't breathe without you baby_ _

For a moment there was just silence between them, weighing on the air like a heavy rock on thin glass and any moment now it would snap and shatter, but just for that minute they stared at each other and the only sound was the sound of their breathing.

In, out, in out. 

_Tell me how I'm supposed to breathe with no air?_

But then suddenly she was talking, she'd opened her mouth and the silence was broken and she was saying --

"I'm so sorry, Juggie, I didn't mean -- you know I would never mean -- I don't care about this, here, I don't care about simple or -- or _perfect,_ or anything, Jug, I just care about -- I just want --"

She looked up at him with a pleading look on her face, her eyes so honest and her hair stuck to her face and it was all he could do not to fix it, tuck it behind her ear.

"I just want you."

_Can't live, can't breathe with no air_

And then he broke, letting his arms drop open and she fell into them like they were two magnets at last without resistance holding them apart, digging her face in his white-tanked chest, and the force of her body knocked him back a little but he steadied himself and pulled his arms around her.

_That's how I feel whenever you ain't there_

"I'm so sorry. I'm so, so sorry," he murmured into her hair, breathing in the scent of her like she was the only thing keeping him alive, like she was oxygen and he'd been suffocating the whole time she was gone.

_There's no air, no air_

_"It's okay, it's okay, it's okay,"_ she whispered, and he sobbed into the golden halo that had already started to dry off in the warmth of the trailer. They held each other and rocked, back and forth, back and forth.

_Got me here out in the water so deep_

"I was drowning," she told him, lifting her head to meet his eyes, wiping a tear from his cheek with the bad of her thumb. "I was drowning without you."

He nodded. 

"Me too."

_Tell me how you goin' be without me?_

"I'm sorry I didn't believe you, that I let my problems get in the way of us -- again," he mumbled, averting his eyes, but she tipped his chin back towards her.

"No, love. It wasn't just you." She smiled. "But, for what it's worth..." Betty's hand gently smoothed over the stubble on his chin.

"I forgive you."

_If you ain't here, I just can't breathe_

And then they'd both stop crying because she was kissing him, kissing his neck and his collarbone and his cheeks and eyes and nose, and he was holding her hands in one of his and the other was firmly around her waist, right where she liked it, right where it made her feel safe and wrapped up and _like home._

_There's no air, no air_

"I love you, Elizabeth Cooper."

"I love you, Forsythe Pendleton Jones III."

"Don't ever call me that again, please."

"I know." Pause. "Never do this again, please. Promise?"

A smile.

"Promise."

And then she kissed him, and everything was all right with the world again because they were one and she was his and he was hers and there they were, Jughead with his Betty and Betts with her Jug and nothing they had said, none of those angry, angry words mattered because here they were, right now, and her hands were in his hair and their breath was hot and mingling and perfect and finally, _finally,_

they could breathe again.

_No air..._

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahhhhh okay wEll that certainly made me want to cry! Anyway yay, I hope everyone liked that as much as I loved writing it! (I was sort of imagining it as like a really dramatic music video/movie and it was great in my head XD) Anyway please leave kudos or a comment or some feedback if you liked it thank you loves! ❤️


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